As a cell analysis cartridge of this type, there is known a cartridge detachably attached to a micro-blood-cell-counter main body as disclosed in Patent Literature 1. The cartridge disclosed in the Patent Literature 1 includes a measurement channel circulating a diluted sample blood that is a fluid sample, an aperture provided on the measurement channel, and a pair of electrodes having fluid-contact units arranged at positions across the aperture held between the fluid-contact portions, respectively. The cartridge is used to perform a blood analysis based on an impedance change between the electrodes caused by passing of such cells as blood cells through the aperture.
Specifically, the measurement channel and the aperture are configured such that the measurement channel is provided in a plane direction of a resin substrate such as a PMMA substrate and the aperture is provided halfway along the measurement channel.
However, with the configuration of providing the measurement channel only in the plane direction, the cartridge is made larger in a plane size if the measurement channel is longer. Furthermore, there is a limit to making compact the plane size of the cartridge because of arrangement of the fluid-contact units of the paired electrodes in the plane direction across the aperture held between the fluid-contact units. In this way, the cartridge having the conventional configuration has a problem that it is difficult to meet market needs of the compact size.
Moreover, the measurement channel including the aperture is configured by forming a groove on a surface of the resin substrate by microfabrication such as micromachining. The aperture, in particular, needs to be formed with high precision because a size of the aperture is appropriately set according to a size of a measurement target cell (such as a blood cell) and has a great influence on a measurement result. If the surface of the resin substrate is machined by the microfabrication such as the micromachining, manufacturing cost increases and it is, therefore, disadvantageously difficult to manufacture the cell analysis cartridge at low cost.
Citation List
Patent Literature
[Patent Literature 1] JPA 2004-257768